I am soooo sick of people giving bad info! I guy I work with is thinking of building an early 80's big block chevy. Some fella starts spouting about needing 1974 orange or blue block heads "because those engines are better". My response was that from mid 70's up through the 80's, none of the productions heads are really spectacular like they were pre-1972, and to get good head info, casting #'s were far better than paint colour. I mean, really, it has been 38 years since 1974, the block could have been painted 10 times or more, so what colour was it really?

Sorry, had to vent a bit.

MARTINSR

02-15-2012 03:36 PM

Are you going to get upset and post when people think Bob Dylan is a "poet" or MMA fights are anything more than a friggin bar room brawl?

It's just an opinion. Stat yours without kicking the other guys butt and let the guy asking figure out what is what.

Brian

Northstar T

02-15-2012 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

Are you going to get upset and post when people think Bob Dylan is a "poet" or MMA fights are anything more than a friggin bar room brawl?

It's just an opinion. Stat yours without kicking the other guys butt and let the guy asking figure out what is what.

Brian

What are you saying Brian? that Dylan was not a poet???? :mwink:

I will agree with the OP however, that it gets a bit frustrating seeing the degree of misinformation that gets thrown at the wall...... yet..... the world keeps turning.

Russ

327NUT

02-15-2012 05:29 PM

Hey!!!! I bought a engin from a guy.....a 1958 327 4-bolt with L-88 Corvette Vortec alum. heads. He said it was a "rare piece" and only offered in race cars...... and it was orange :) :)

sbchevfreak

02-15-2012 07:17 PM

Yeah, I know that opinions are like @##holes, but this guy is a reletive newb, and has a very limited amount of funds. He is a good guy, and wants to do it right the first time, and I just would feel bad if he took this kind of advice, and spent money on heads that were not what he was expecting.:(

unix

02-15-2012 07:51 PM

True on the amount of bogus crap floating around, but at least the Feds tell the truth.

DoubleVision

02-17-2012 05:10 AM

I've been told some doozy's in my time.
There was a fella in my neighborhood with a sbc for sale, advertised as a 350
which is what he was told it was. I went and looked at it and had my book of casting numbers with me. It looked like a 305 to me. Sure enough the casting numbers confirmed it. Another guy in my neighborhood looked at it who knew absolutely nothing about engines except cubic inches said it was a 350, I asked him how he came to that conclusion and he said "Don't you know? all 350's from 1962 to 1972 were blue" I didn't bother to tell the jerk they didn't even make a 350 until 1967. But I sure wish I had that awesome skill, look at the paint color and know the cubic inches!
There's plenty of other mythical legends and they are still going strong to this day and they are:
"Vette engine" - People believe ALL corvettes came with a high performance engine. I'm still waiting to find that field full of corvettes with the front end riding high from the engine being pulled but the rest of the car in perfect A-1 shape and why was the engine pulled? Cause it's a "vette" engine.
"350 4 bolt main" - Yes, the infamous 4 bolt main, those extra six bolts add a 100 horsepower.
"3/4 cam" - This one still makes me laugh. When I get told by someone they have one I ask them where did they get 3/4 of a engine from.
"Police Interceptor" - Another classic, the so called PI engines had so much horsepower it's unmeasureable because the police got to have special cars that the public can't get or build.
"Positraction rearend" - In there eyes, this means a solid locked spool. And by some miracle it adds horsepower plus they came in factory cars.
"Pop up pistons" - They tell me it's got pop up pistons and 11:1 compression while they're pumping 87 octane in the tank.
And now,, THE LEGEND (Drum roll please)
"350 Rocket" - Yes the famous Rocket, Don't matter what year, don't matter what it's in, don't matter period. It makes unimagineable horsepower. Won't blow up, will out run anything, including the vette engine and the police interceptor,,, all engines fall before it's brute power, it's the ultimate drag strip intimidator, see that guy over there with the blown 502 big block? Go tell him you wanna run'em, when you tell'em you got a 350 Rocket, he'll studder and stammer then make up a excuse that he's got a cake burning at home,,, It also gives the owner incredible intimidation powers,, That's right,, thats the respect the Lendary 350 rocket gets no matter where it goes. I've had young guys to old men and all ages inbetween tell me the legend of the 350 Rocket. And you know, as famous as they are and going by how many people have told me they have one I haven't seen one yet!
So now days when I run into any of these clowns speaking this garbage I tell them I have a "350 rocket 4 bolt main police interceptor vette motor with a 3/4 cam and pop up pistons"

topwrench

02-17-2012 06:49 AM

I painted a 496 I just built black...wonder how much power that added.
The SBC in my truck is painted gold!
n the SBC in my Vette is blue!
You know what really bugs me sometimes is Ill post an answer with some help based on experience and then 5 or 6 guys will jump on n post the same thing only using different wording,saying the same thing.
But oh well....Thats life!

123pugsy

02-17-2012 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topwrench

I painted a 496 I just built black...wonder how much power that added.
The SBC in my truck is painted gold!
n the SBC in my Vette is blue!
You know what really bugs me sometimes is Ill post an answer with some help based on experience and then 5 or 6 guys will jump on n post the same thing only using different wording,saying the same thing.
But oh well....Thats life!

So the gold motor is the 350 Rocket, right! Cool!

As for someone else posting the same thing, that's a good thing for the OP.
If he here's different answers, he's gotten nowhere.
This is what's important.

shine

02-17-2012 08:22 AM

before paying for casting #'s you might want to look at the heads. many different heads us the same casting #
as for block color that is the dumbest thing i have heard in a while .

shine

02-17-2012 08:38 AM

the 3964290 and 3964280 were the early 454 closed chamber heads. 109 cc . i use to have a stack of them .

Bonneville462

02-17-2012 08:43 AM

I try to pay more attention to what's coming from my mouth... I'm more content that way...

I am soooo sick of people giving bad info! I guy I work with is thinking of building an early 80's big block chevy. Some fella starts spouting about needing 1974 orange or blue block heads "because those engines are better". My response was that from mid 70's up through the 80's, none of the productions heads are really spectacular like they were pre-1972, and to get good head info, casting #'s were far better than paint colour. I mean, really, it has been 38 years since 1974, the block could have been painted 10 times or more, so what colour was it really?

Sorry, had to vent a bit.

Well, a few things, the last big block in a car was '75-76 depending on whom you ask, most say 1975.
the 80's big blocks, have peanut port heads more times than not.. unless it was an over the counter crate engine..
so your response is no better than the guy your ranting about, because g.m. sold a boat load of ls6 crate engines, and lesser oval port crate engines,
so if your buddy goes buy your statement and automaticly writes of heads from the years you listed, he'll miss out on a lot of heads..
casting #'s are helpfull, sometimes, but can mean zero. as many a head has had bigger valves added, port work, bowl work, in the 20-40 years since the day they where cast..
your response isn't all that much better than the paint colour one..
as the info given is not totally true, or close to fact

MARTINSR

02-17-2012 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Northstar T

I will agree with the OP however, that it gets a bit frustrating seeing the degree of misinformation that gets thrown at the wall...... yet..... the world keeps turning.

Russ

Getting frustrated about it is like getting frustrated with the government. And besides there is an aweful gray line between "wrong" information and "different" information.